A DAY later, Justen Allport can laugh about the unprecedented waves that knocked the big-wave surfer for six, with just a sore shoulder and some stitches to show for this spectacular wipeout at the Red Bull Cape Fear event.

In the jaw-dropping waves battering the Sydney coastline, organisers dubbed it the biggest break ever surfed at Cape Solander on the edge of Botany Bay.

Allport wouldn’t disagree, after hitting his head on the reef and spending a few hours in hospital before returning on Tuesday to watch the event wind up. Even a surfer with his experience is well aware of the risks.

The wave that ended Jug's run and split his melon. Photo: @benbugdenphoto

Before the comp was even called, I thought there might have been a day worth going down to surf. Then I got word the comp might run, so I wrote it all off and thought I’d go down and watch Albee Layer surf in it, not realizing he’d pulled out. Then I got a message from a number I didn’t have in my phone asking me to be in it. I thought it was a mate taking the piss, but it turns out it was Mark Mathews.

Meet the firefighter and family man who surfs Sydney's scariest wave just for kicks. This is the first of a three-pack of episodes from Sydney's Cape Fear. Here, in episode one, we introduce you to Justen Allport. He's a firefighter and a family man, but he spends his free time surfing Sydney's most notorious slab.

Justen ‘Jughead’ Allport has no regrets after almost drowning at Red Bull Cape Fear surf comp

Tom Westbrook, Central Coast Gosford Express Advocate

June 7, 2016 4:06pm

SURFER Justen “Jughead” Allport, who almost drowned in fearsome waves during a contest at Cape Solander south of Sydney yesterday, said organisers were right to press ahead with Red Bull Cape Fear comp in the heaviest waves he’s ever ridden.

“If we hadn’t gone out, we would’ve looked back and said: ‘Maybe we should have,’” he said.

“It probably wasn’t the biggest, but everyone agrees it was the heaviest ever.”